Thousands of phone SIM cards have been blocked due to lack of verification.
Two weeks after Circular 08 on subscriber information verification came into effect, many subscribers will have their accounts blocked for not complying with the regulations.
This morning, Lan Anh (Cau Giay district) was shocked when her phone notified her that her SIM card would be blocked for outgoing calls, even though she hadn't had a chance to go to the store to verify it.
Lan Anh said she received a notification from her mobile network provider requesting verification two weeks ago. However, due to her busy work schedule, she hasn't had time to complete the verification.
"Thinking the request wasn't urgent, I was careless, but unexpectedly, the deadline for my SIM card to be blocked had arrived," Lan Anh said, adding that she immediately went to the network provider's store to verify. After a few minutes of assistance from the staff, she completed the subscriber information update.
The situation that Ms. Lan Anh is experiencing is common among users who have not verified their subscriber information as required, especially after receiving notification messages from their network provider.
According to the roadmap following the effective date of Circular 08 on April 15th, the VNeID application will send notifications to users in batches to verify whether their subscription is currently active. If the VNeID application confirms that the subscription is not in use, the user will receive a message requesting re-verification within 5 days. If the user fails to do so, their service will be blocked one-way, before proceeding to stronger measures such as two-way blocking or number revocation.
Additionally, another group of users who need to verify their subscriptions immediately includes those who use documents such as 9-digit ID cards, 12-digit citizen identification cards, or other documents such as passports, military or police ID cards to register SIM cards, or who receive standardization invitation messages from the network provider, and those who are using SIM cards registered under someone else's name.
According to regulations, mobile network operators must ensure that mobile subscribers have all four pieces of information: personal identification number, full name, date of birth, and facial biometric data, and that this data matches the National Population Database of the Ministry of Public Security.
If a user receives a notification but fails to take action, their SIM card will be blocked according to the procedures stipulated in Circular 08.
A representative from a mobile network operator stated that, starting April 15th, they had notified users with incomplete information to verify their details. Therefore, now, 15 days after the notification, the SIM card blocking process has begun.
"However, users can simply go to a store or verify their identity through the app to resume normal service," a representative from the network provider stated.
Observations at transaction points over the past few days show a significant increase in the number of customers coming to complete procedures in person. The majority of them are elderly customers who are not tech-savvy.
According to regulations, if users do not complete the verification process within 15 days of receiving a warning from the network provider, their subscriptions will be blocked. This is a strong measure by the regulatory authorities to eliminate the problem of unregistered SIM cards and SIM cards that have been the source of many scams and spam messages that have caused public outrage recently.
Circular 08 of the Ministry of Science and Technology, guiding the verification of information for terrestrial mobile subscribers, takes effect today. One of the new points of the circular is that VNeID will be used as a tool to help users re-check SIM cards registered under their names, thereby confirming the subscriber number they are using. This will also serve as a basis for requesting network operators to re-verify subscribers whose information is not registered under their name.
This measure helps prevent the situation where one person's information is used to register another person's phone number, one of the causes of SIM cards not registered in the owner's name and the problem of spam calls in recent times.
